Art Forms

Today was a good mail day. Came home to find a lovely rectangular package containing Buffy #31.Unlike most comic book fans, I came to the graphic form late. Being introduced to Sandman in my early 20s and then staying loyal to Buffy by subscribing to Season Eight.

Though Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains my sole subscription, I've become increasingly fascinated by the graphic novel form. I think it is wonderful, engaging and possessing an urgency in its execution that is ever so compelling.

There's been a recent flurry of publishing news about graphic novels sparked by the announcement that Twilight will be released in graphic form this March. A number of other YA authors, including Cynthia Leitich Smith, Cassandra Clare, and Melissa Marr, whose work I admire will also be coming out with graphic tie-ins to their series. I hope that this surge in graphic production is the form coming into its own and not just a trend, and it's a dream of mine to someday be counted among authors who've published graphic novels.

So what do you think about graphic novels? Like, don't like? Do they offer something print-only books don't?

What about books like Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan that include illustrations?Looking forward to your thoughts!

Go, Go Graphic Novel!

In further tales of ALA, BEA buzz, the belle of the ball seems to be David Small's graphic novel, Stitches.
I wasn't a comic book kid, though I do have fond memories of perusing my piano teacher's children's cast-off stacks of X-Men while I was waiting for my mom to pick me up. So when it comes to comics and graphic novels I feel like a newbie trying to sneak into a venerated and esoteric society.
I stumbled into the land of graphic novels by way of loyalty to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When Joss Whedon announced the series would continue in Season 8 with Dark Horse Comics, I'd signed up months before the first issue was out.

And I loved the new format instantly. Graphic novels are an incredible medium of communication. The monumental devotion that fans of Neil Gaiman's Sandman display are enough of a testimony to the depth and strength of writing and worlds built by creators of the graphic medium.

With the growing interest in graphic novels, publishers and marketers alike are bringing more and more of the medium to an ever-growing audience.

There's even a Twilight graphic novel in the works.

My question then becomes how does one go from writer to writer of graphic novels/manga? One of my favorite YA authors, Melissa Marr, has manga in the works that complement her novels.

My only brush with this medium is the comic I made for my husband's birthday last year. And while I'm still blushingly proud of the creation, it hardly makes me a graphic novelist.

Who is the keeper of the bridge between novelists and graphic novelists? How does one cross over, or preferably, live a writing life on both sides?